At a recent quiz there was a group that had just popped in for a drink, without knowing that there was a quiz that night. They decided to enter after a little bit of gentle persuasion, and they had the first picture round. The quizmaster carried on around the rest of the room, but then noticed lots of phones out in the new team. It was clear that they were photographing the pictures and then using Google image search (other search engines are available) to identify some of the people.
Obviously, you can’t have teams blatantly cheating, but this is a new team, and you don’t want to be too officious with them as you want them to come back. So, a little care was needed – “I know this is your first quiz, but . . .” and “please put the phones away” did the trick.
They were nowhere near winning (although they did okay) which removed that problem. Had they been in the mix there would have been a difficult decision to make, and hopefully they’ll be back (and will stick to the rules from now on).
Dealing with cheats is difficult, so think about your approach before it happens. Be prepared is a good motto.